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Demesne 213 - Interest

Because of her preparations, riding the sled to River's Fork wasn't as bad a she feared. While she would have liked to be holding on to Riz's waist instead of Rian's—because if she were holding onto Riz, it would mean her hand would be between the militiawoman's front and Rian's back, protected from the wind—the stone with the bindings of firewisps was some help keeping her back and legs warm.

Thankfully, there were no attempts at conversation, despite the bindings of air wisps she ...

Demesne 212 - In Case of Pregnancy

At breakfast the next day, Lori was trying to find the connection between bound tools, glass and how bound tools function—all the bound tools she'd ever encountered had glass parts with wires from the bead receptacle leading into them—when Rian sat down in front of her and immediately said, "We have a slight emergency."

Lori sighed, her flow of thought interrupted. "Who died and who did it?"

"No one's died yet, but potential for death is very high."

"What is it then?" 2022-07-24 16:01:02 +0000 UTC View Post

Ainōryoku Sentai Nightmærangers #52

The Nightmares That Came To Manila, Part 10

Inconsiderately, getting impaled near the spine by a spike that suddenly sprouts tentacles to start ripping apart flesh wasn't enough to kill Laking Kamay. It was still a spike through its back which had tentacles ripping at its flesh, however, and therefore very distracting. Being impaled through the back, it was also nearly impossible to reach and remove since limbs rarely had the flexibil...

Weekly Digest 68 - (#209 - #211)

White Iridescence

They only managed to do basic experiments on the substance inside the beads, since Lori's tools, equipment and instruments were limited. The substance inside the bead felt disconcerting like Iridescence to the touch, and Lori had to resist the urge to wash her hands to clean it every time she made contact. Thankfully, unlike the colors, it didn't seem to be crystalizing, and she felt none of the telltale prickling on her skin of crystal growth...

22/7/22 Update

The latest chapter of Nightmaerangers is once again experiencing technical difficulties. It is possible it might not update this week, or if it did it would be shorter than usual. 

We apologize for the lack, but the chapter is being really difficult. In future, we might have to pose shorter chapters instead. 

Will still try to post this week, but very probable I might not be able to make this week's update.

Again, we are very sorry and will try to do better.

Demesne 211 - A Gap In Understanding

"Um, I'm not sure I understand the significance," Rian said, looking up from what she'd just told him to write. "I didn't go to wizard school, after all. I can barely read and write. Why is something still being 'anchored' significant?"

Lori glared at him, but he had a point. While her lord seemed able to understand concepts with relative ease, even esoteric ones about Whispering—most people had trouble with firewisps not actually making fire—she supposed he didn't have the foundati...

Demesne 210 - Routine Set In

It was very tempting to stop expanding the demesne.

It was very tempting to stop going out to the edge of the demesne to practice and study forming beads

It was very tempting to just stay in her newly—and probably permanently—claimed alcove in the second level and devote her time to studying the now-opened bead. The substance inside, the white Iridescence as Rian had dubbed it, was fascinating, and defied her expectations of what it should act like, given what she knew had com...

Demesne 209 - White Iridescence

They only managed to do basic experiments on the substance inside the beads, since Lori's tools, equipment and instruments were limited. The substance inside the bead felt disconcertingly like Iridescence to the touch, and Lori had to resist the urge to wash her hands to clean of it every time she made contact. Thankfully, unlike the colors, it didn't seem to be crystalizing, and she felt none of the telltale prickling on her skin of crystal growths embedding into her flesh.

The mostly ...

Ainōryoku Sentai Nightmærangers #51

The Nightmares That Came To Manila, Part 9

When the sky above them had lit up, Tammy had been relieved. Red had finally arrived!

But no, it turned out it was a giant flying shark made of lightning.

Silly her. Of course the other monsters around the city wouldn't just conveniently make themselves scarce while they were having a crisis.

With their arrival, the weather changed for the worse, the cool, constant breeze growing stronger, more violent.

The Lightning Sha...

Weekly Digest 65 - (#206 - #208)

Bead Economic Theory

When they returned back to her dungeon on the late side of mid-afternoon, they did so with five beads of various sizes sitting heavily in Lori's belt pouch. She had lost track of the time during experimentation, so when they'd gotten back she'd resigned herself to being hungry and therefore irritable, only to learn that Rian had asked the kitchen to set some food aside for them.

Thankfully, Riz's friend had not needed to be told she w...

Demesne 208 - Breaking Bead

"So… the only hammers we have are made of metal. Will that be a problem? Seepage and whatnot?" Rian asked

Lori shook her head. "It shouldn't be as long as the metal isn't also in contact with a binding. Metal is a conduit, not a receptacle."

Rian frowned. "Why is seepage such an issue, then? Shouldn't it only be a problem if a bead is around bindings?"

"Can you see bindings to avoid them?"

"Ah. Good point."

After she had given Rian authorization, he had arrange...

Demesne 207 - Bead Experiments

Naturally, Rian had to destroy her beautiful dreams.

"It won't last forever. Given the incentives to find out how you did it, I wouldn't be surprised if other demesne stumble upon how to make their own beads within a year of us showing up in Covehold selling beads to workshops so they can power their bound tools," Rian said later when it was just the two of them playing chatrang in an alcove in the second level. Well, the two of them and the other three. Riz was once more napping on the...

Demesne 206 - Bead Economic Theory

When they returned back to her dungeon on the late side of mid-afternoon, they did so with five beads of various sizes sitting heavily in Lori's belt pouch. She had lost track of the time during experimentation, so when they'd gotten back she'd resigned herself to being hungry and therefore irritable, only to learn that Rian had asked the kitchen to set some food aside for them.

Thankfully, Riz's friend had not needed to be told she wasn't invited, and sat eating at a different table wh...

Ainōryoku Sentai Nightmærangers #50

The Nightmares That Came To Manila, Part 8

Sanny had been running as something slim and quadrupedal (and any resemblance to a mythological virgin detector was sheer coincidence), with the front limbs doubling as wings when he had room to leap and glide. The body had been all fast-twitch muscles that laughed in the face of fatigue and let him keep on accelerating when normal biology would have long stopped moving in agony. He didn't stop runnin...

Weekly Digest 64 - (#203 - #205)

The Sled Air Jet

After a night's thoughtful deliberation, the mechanism Lori came up with for the carpenters to make was a box. The shape had to be simple so it could be efficiently made from planks with a minimum of wood. While they could theoretically leave her Dungeon now to fell trees for wood wood again, in practice the snow made that difficult Best to work within the resources they had stockpiled that required a minimum of processing. Technically she coul...

Demesne 205 - Not a Dungeon Core

Lori stared. "Where did you get that?" she demanded, voice starting to tremble.

"We found it buried in the snow," Rian said, voice low and glancing over his shoulder as if he expected someone there to be trying to listen. "It was near the marker you put down. Had to dig up the snow to find it, since I figured anything interesting would have gotten covered up since then. Dragged the sled, pointed the air jets towards the marker, had everyone stand in front of the sled to keep it from mov...

Demesne 204 - The Sled, Completed

"So, suggestion for a new plan," Rian said as they sat down to breakfast the next day. "On consideration, maybe using your boat is too much. We don't really need all the space on it, after all. What if we just put the air jets you made on a couple of boards? They'll be light enough for the air jets to move without any further modification, a smaller profile would reduce friction, and they can be steered by leaning left or right, which we couldn't do with the boat unless we built some sort of ...

Demesne 203 - The Sled Air Jet

After a night's thoughtful deliberation, the mechanism Lori came up with for the carpenters to make was a box. The shape had to be simple so it could be efficiently made from planks with a minimum of wood. While they could theoretically leave her Dungeon now to fell trees for wood wood again, in practice the snow made that difficult Best to work within the resources they had stockpiled that required a minimum of processing. Technically she could have designed something that could be made with...

Weekly Digest 63 - (#200 - #202)

Past The Storm

The storm continued for two more days, finally blowing itself out and going still after five days of intense wind and snow. Technically it stopped midday of the fifth day, but Rian had suggested giving it time, in case it had simply been a lull and not the end.

During those two days, Lori had continued expanding her demesne using her new methodology. The creation of the massive spherical binding, while still greatly intimidating in scale, h...

Demesne Patron EX SS 15 - A Lord's Day

I woke up cold, my feet still feeling chill under my blanket. The fire had of course gone out in the night.

It was a terrible way to wake up, but it encouraged me not to linger in bed despite me inclinations. Still, I couldn't help letting out a groan as I got to my feet, and took the two layers of socks off my hands to check for frostbite. The fact they started to inform me how much they hated me as I exposed them to more the cold was a good sign, but I still checked to make sure they ...

Demesne 202 - The Sled

"Can I borrow your boat?" Rian asked her that morning as they waited for Riz and Umu to come with breakfast.

"My boat?" Lori frowned as she finished setting up the sunk board and moving it towards Mikon so the weaver could make the first move. Ah, winning was fun.

"Yes, your boat."

"Do you mean Lori's Boat?" Lori made her move as Mikon finished with hers. The weaver was trying all sorts of opening gambits other than the most optimal one, simply because she wasn't wi...

Demesne 201 - Oh

Lori had planned to clear the way to the tree line by creating another tunnel through the snow until they hit a tree, and then having people with shovels deal with the rest. It was, in her opinion, the simplest way to deal with a lot of frozen water unless they wanted a lot of ice lying around, and she didn't. Snow wasn't a contiguous solid, after all, so she'd need to compact it first before she could properly manipulate it. In many ways it shared the same problems as using earthwisps to mov...

Demesne 200 - Past The Storm

The storm continued for two more days, finally blowing itself out and going still after five days of intense wind and snow. Technically it stopped midday of the fifth day, but Rian had suggested giving it time, in case it had simply been a lull and not the end.

During those two days, Lori had continued expanding her demesne using her new methodology. The creation of the massive spherical binding, while still greatly intimidating in scale, had been made and remade again and again. Despit...

Ainōryoku Sentai Nightmærangers #49

The Nightmares That Came To Manila, Part 7

Tammy heard a new roar echo through the night below her as the drones carrying her and Blue, as well as the drone Yellow had left in Magenta's house started cackling in a mildly disturbing manner. "Uh, Yellow?"

"Busy," was the terse reply. "Get ready, you're almost there."

Tammy was mildly concerned, but she'd seen Yellow like this before, when they'd going after the bees together in Tagay...

Weekly Digest 62 - (#197 - #199)

Planning For Recovery

“So…” Rian said casually at lunch as they started to eat, “was that scream we all heard coming from your room something that I should worry about, or…?”

Lori glowered at him as she put down the last of her stones into the bowls of the sunk board and finished her turn. She'd decided to bring it down today, something that Mikon seemed happy about. For herself, after what had happened this morning, she needed the satisfactio...

Demesne 199 - A Success By Any Standard

"We'll have to go to the spot at the edge of the demesne where it happened," Rian said thoughtfully after she finished relating matters to him. "If nothing else, if this somehow deformed the terrain, it might be a good idea to see how."

"Unlikely," Lori said. "The wisps weren't anchored to anything except to hold them in place, otherwise I would be distending the ground at the borders of the demesne at every expansion."

"I should probably go check, just in case," Rian insisted. "D...

Demesne 198 - Unexpected Unexpected

Lori was not one of those foolish people who refused to admit she was wrong. She was very willing to admit she was wrong, once presented with sufficient empirical evidence. She wouldn't admit it out loud, because that would be pointless and silly and unnecessary, but she would admit it to herself, and that was really the only person such an admission mattered.

It was still incredibly irritating, those wasted days, but she had a superior method now. At least, it should be superi...

Demesne 197 - Planning For Recovery

“So…” Rian said casually at lunch as they started to eat, “was that scream we all heard coming from your room something that I should worry about, or…?”

Lori glowered at him as she put down the last of her stones into the bowls of the sunk board and finished her turn. She'd decided to bring it down today, something that Mikon seemed happy about. For herself, after what had happened this morning, she needed the satisfaction of an easy victory against the weaver. "Everything i...

Ainōryoku Sentai Nightmærangers #48

The Nightmares That Came To Manila, Part 6

Controlling multiple drones at once, and through the drones doing several things at once, came easily to Sanny. It was one of the few distinct advantages he had over the others even if, as with many things about what he did, he wasn't quite sure how exactly it really worked. The short answer was that having multiple bodies gave him multiple brains and let him pursue multiple distinct trains o...

Weekly Digest 61 - (#194 - #196)

Lori Officiates Marriages

"Rian, tell everyone we're doing the marriages after breakfast," Lori told him as she sat down for breakfast.

Outside, the snowstorm still howled, burying her demesne even more. From what she could discern from the wisps outside her Dungeon, the surface of the river had frozen, trapping the Coldhold, and the snow had gotten even deeper. Fortunately, the entryway into her Dungeon had been kept clear in the night, no doubt...